Make A New Life Plan

"Why do so many of us think it's too late to make major changes in our lives?"

How many times have you said, or heard your friends say "if I had it to do over again I'd pick "this career" (or that career)". Why is it that we feel we are unable or incapable of starting a new life plan at any age? I think it's because we have been programmed by a society that suggests this notion. I remember at age 20, working in a bottling plant for minimum wage trying to fight off the gnawing feeling of doom in thinking that this was my life. I thought to myself "but this is all I know. I'm 20 years old, I'm not a kid anymore. I have a wife and child to take care of. This is my life."

When we're young we're taught that we must make our life plan to decide "what we're going to be when we grow up". Most people feel pressured to make such crucial career decisions in their young stage of life and many choose hastily just to make a choice because they feel as though there's a deadline to meet. And there are lots of other people who grew up and were encouraged (or blatantly steered) into following the family tradition of carrying on the profession of their parents, as with second, third, fourth and more generation careers such as police officers and firefighters. Others just seem to fall into the family business, not as a choice but it's all they've ever known in life.

I often wonder how many people in America are in their careers by total selective choice versus some sort of direct or indirect steering. I often ask people who I meet how they ended up in the career that they're in, and I'm surprised at how few say that it was a career they'd always dreamed of and they had planned their life to study and prepare for it. I myself, had little choice when I found myself working in that bottling plant at a very young age, a job I had to take because I had left school and lacked the education requirements to enable me to get better employment.

But the point I'm trying to make is that it's not the level of our employment or the social standard of our lives that necessarily result in the happiness we had set our sights on when we were growing up, it's the satisfaction quotient we have in our lives now! All of us have room for improvement in many aspects of our lives but I think there are way too many people in this world who are dreadfully unhappy with their life circumstances, and even sadder are those who have given up hope for their lives to ever to become happy again.

We all know that being 20 years old is not at all too late for changing one's career and life plan. But when I was 20 I thought it was too late for me to change course because I thought that at age 20, I was a full fledged adult and my life at that time was all that I could see, especially having been married with a child. But as silly as it sounds to me now of how I thought I had no options when I was 20 years old, equally as silly does it sound to me now to hear a 40, 50, 60, 70 year old, or older person today say that they are too old to make a major change in their life to help them get back on the path for a happier future.

There has never been a time in history when people have lived longer and in better health than we are enjoying today. 30 years ago it was odd seeing people in their 30's and 40's, in college classrooms, much less people in their 50's and 60's. Today, the age ratio of college students is as diverse as the crowds who walk the city sidewalks each day. Many large corporate businesses still prefer hiring mature older people than young inexperienced people. And by experienced, I don't necessarily mean being experienced in the profession that one is in, I'm referring to "life experience".

So look at yourself. Look at where you are. Look at where you've been. Look at where you would like to be. Ask yourself what is keeping you from your goal. Is it lack of education? Then find a way to go back to school. It's never been easier now with online Universities. Are you in an unhappy, boring, stale marriage or relationship? Then stop wasting your life and end it! Trust me, being single may be lonely sometimes but the worst kind of loneliness is when your with someone who you don't want to be with! Whatever it is you want to do, whatever it is you want to be, ask yourself this question: "What are the stumbling blocks that are preventing me from accomplishing these things for myself?" My guess is that the stumbling blocks are 95% manageable!